Three Demohouses host the MAKING-CITY project

The MAKING-CITY project is now 21-months live and the consortium members are working jointly to determine by the end of the project valid and replicable standards to be the core of specific urban transition planning processes aligned with the vision and the goals of the cities. According to the project’s Grant Agreement the participants partners in charge of the “Demonstration of Positive Energy District” workpackage have started to purchase field experimentation to study technical solutions which could in the future be implemented in the PED models and processes. The demo houses project will promote the definition of a new concept of intervention related to the extensive retrofitting of homes. The consortium partners in charge are focusing on the retrofitting options of three individual buildings, terrace houses in the North PED of Groningen. For these three households different combinations of innovative and conventional technics were selected, based on calculations, to make these households energy positive.

The selection of Demo houses

To recruit the homes which will embody the demohouses project, the local partners have organized a cross-media campaign to share the message to the inhabitants of the North PED. A total of 18 homeowners signed up in the first round. Six demohouses were preselected and rated according six criteria:

1. Is it representative for the district?
2. Is there available physical space: does the house have enough space for sustainability measures or innovations?
3. What is the potential of becoming energy positive?
4. Unicity: does the house have any unique features that makes it a better candidate?
5. Feasibility VS Investment: is the ratio between the investment and the energy savings reasonable?
6. Innovativity of solutions: can the house become more sustainable using innovations?

After studying the six preselected candidates, three of them have been selected to be the final demo houses. A technical consultant has been involved to investigate and determine possible scenarios to make the three different households more energy positive. All the houses that were not selected were offered to be monitored as extra data for the project.

HOUSEHOLDS #3

For the last household, another system is being considered to be installed. The household has a good insulation rate, but has a disadvantage. The roof of the household is located to the North, which means that PV-panels (or PVT) have a relatively low yield (<50%). With the current prices of the installers, the homeowners do not consider this as an interesting investment. Together with an innovative company, the project and the homeowners are discovering the possibilities of hanging PV-panels vertically to the facade of the building. Both the technical and economical details are now being studied, as well as the permit process with the municipality. The possible heating solution for this household would be a triple solar system. The triple solar system is a legally registered system, that contains a total solution for heating the household with a heating pump, PVT-panels and a booster. Together with the homeowners, the supplier, possible installers and consortium partners, the feasibility of this solution is studied. To determine the energy flows within the households, all three have been equipped with smart plugs that communicate with a router. The consortium partner Sustainable Buildings (SB) had developed a dashboard on which the homeowners can see their energy use. Together with the coaches from GPO, the energy use will be analyzed and a plan will be made to help the homeowners save energy and therefore money. All major equipment installed in the households is measured and can be analysed.